Children of the Night: The Legend of the True Ones
by chochowilliams
Summary: EDITED. One-shot. Eiri is disgusted by the portrayal of modern vampires. Language, M/M, Twilight bashing, vampireEiri, vampireTohma, HumanBondMateShuichi


**Children of the Night: The Legend of the True Ones**

**One-Shot**

**Written by: **chochowilliams

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Gravitation_, the _Twilight_ series or the characters from them. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

**Summary: **Eiri is disgusted by the portrayal of modern vampires.

**Warning: **romance,fantasy,language, M/M, Twilight bashing, vampires, mentions of shape shifters and blood drinking, vampire!Eiri, vampire!Tohma

**Pairings:** Shuichi/Eiri

**Inserts: **mentions of_ Twilight_

**A/N:** Told myself I wasn't going to jump on the band wagon, but here it is and I have to say, I like it.

**oOo**

**Children of the Night: The Legend of the True Ones**

For the past six hours, Eiri has been locked in his office trying to balance the books for Truth, the nightclub he owned downtown. This was proving to be more difficult than it should be. No matter how many times he went over the numbers, they just did not add up. He had a feeling some heads were going to roll. Literally. Or more accurately, one in particular.

If that wasn't enough, he had to deal with several suddenly vacant positions at both the club as well as Kita, the restaurant he owned that was also located downtown.

At the club, his bouncer was shot and killed in a freak drive by while on vacation. His best bartender and a seasoned waitress at the restaurant quit without notice for reasons unknown and the dishwasher cut back his hours because he'd decided to go back to school. Fun times. He was not looking forward to training a whole array of wet behind the ears. Though, the inexperienced weren't all _that_ bad. It was actually how he'd met Shuichi.

Ten years ago, he'd found himself down a busboy. Out of all the applicants he'd looked at, the only one that had appeared to know what he was doing was a tiny fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Shuichi Shindou. After a slow start, on both of their parts, the two of them soon became inseparable.

And while he contemplated murderous thoughts about the manager of his nightclub, said lover has spent the evening sprawled out on their bed reading.

Six hours. Reading. Shuichi.

He had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Never had Eiri thought he would ever have a need to string those three phrases together in the same sentence, at least when speaking about Shuichi. Sometimes it was hard to remember that the baka could actually read. That was not to say that Shuichi did not read because Shuichi did read and more than just sheet music. Usually, though, he stuck to manga and fanfiction, so to discover his pink haired pianist holed up for half of the day with a book thicker than the width of his hand was a little unusual. He wondered if it was a sign of the pending apocalypse.

At least this latest obsession of Shuichi's was keeping the house quiet and clean. There was always a first for everything.

From the doorway of the master bedroom, Eiri watched his lover. Shuichi, now twenty-four, was sprawled out on their bed in nearly the same exact position as he'd been when Eiri had last checked in on him nearly six hours ago: propped up against every single pillow they owned with his face planted in a book.

"Baka."

Eiri chuckled as an obviously startled Shuichi yelped and literally jumped a foot off the bed.

The book Shuichi had had his face buried in slipped out of his grasp. It bounced off the mattress and tumbled to the floor with a loud clatter. Several of the pillows followed in its wake. Placing a hand over his chest, Shuichi breathed deeply before blasting a death glare at his boyfriend. "Dammit Eiri," he bit harshly over a rapidly beating heart that was quickly returning to normal. "You scared the fucking shit out of me."

Eiri's senses were overloading. The scent of fear, momentary though it'd been, rolled off his lithe lover like perfume. He inhaled it and his hazel eyes flashed gold. It made him salivate, as did the thudding pulse at the base of Shuichi's throat. Dropping his arms, he pushed away from the doorframe. Quiet stole over him. The breath he did not have to breathe was abated. The heart that did have to beat, but did just for the annoyed younger male before him, went still within his chest.

Continuing to mutter his annoyance, Shuichi reached over the side of the bed to retrieve his fallen book. Now he was going to have to find where he'd left off and the pages were probably bent all to hell too. Great. Just great. Maiko was going to have his head. She'd leant him the book in pristine condition and expected it back in the same condition. Stupid Eiri. He knew cats that made more noise than Eiri did, who probably got off on scaring him. Jerk.

Hanging nearly upside down off the side of the bed, his fingers dangling mere centimeters from the glossy black covered book, Shuichi yelped and lost his balance, nearly tumbling to the floor, when in, literally, a blink of an eye, the book was replaced by a pair of bare feet. He cursed his lover as he regained his balance.

"Warn a guy next time!" he snapped over a thudding pulse.

Instead of answering, Eiri snorted in derision at the book he'd snatched, quite literally, out from under his lover's nose. "I cannot believe you read this crap."

Annoyance, which was never too far from the surface when Eiri decided to flaunt his abilities just to see what reactions he could get, flared through Shuichi.

Pushing off the hard wood floor, Shuichi climbed back onto the bed and glared at his strikingly handsome lover.

"It is NOT crap," he bellowed.

With envious agility, Eiri tossed the book one-handed lightly into the air, seemingly with ease. It flipped over and landed back cover side-up in his hand. It was much like a chef flipping a pancake using only the pan and skill. The front cover was now facing Shuichi: a single white flower covered in blood.

The sight of his precious book being manhandled irritated Shuichi.

"Hey!"

He jumped up onto his knees and snatched back the hefty book before Eiri did even more damage to it. It was easy to tell that Eiri let him take the book because there was no way that he would ever be able to win in a contest of tug-of-war. Even if he were to have the use of preternatural strength like Eiri, he still would end up the loser eleven times out of ten. Tumbling slightly under the sudden weight of the book, though-barely-managing to keep his grip, he hugged the book to his chest.

"Back off Blondie!" he ordered with a light growl.

Eiri cocked an eyebrow. His lips twitched. A book. Shuichi was getting his panties in a twist over a freaking book. Well. Didn't that just make him feel loved?

"And keep those fangs to yourself," Shuichi added when he caught a glimpse of the razor sharp canines. When they first got together, Eiri told him that a human could only donate once a day. Possibly not even that much. It was too bad too because Eiri's bite was orgasmic. Literally. That meant that when Shuichi couldn't feed him, Eiri had to go elsewhere. The jealousy that gripped Shuichi those times was like hellfire.

As if he could read the thoughts spinning around in Shuichi's head, which he probably could, Eiri grinned.

"Bastard."

Chuckling, Eiri held his hands up and Sidestepped away.

"And would you stop that!" All he'd done was blink and now Eiri was leaning against the dresser with his arms crossed. Sometimes living with a vampire was exasperating. What was worse than living with one? Being in love with one. Honestly. Sometimes he swore Eiri got off on annoying him.

With the book still clutched to his chest, Shuichi crawled backwards away from the edge of the bed.

Eiri sighed heavily. He could feel a headache coming on. As a two hundred-fifty year old vampire, he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Were vampires supposed to get headaches? "Baka," he sighed. He was tired of sighing, but it was inevitable while around Shuichi Shindou. "Why are you getting so-?"

Shuichi narrowed his amethyst gaze. "So what?"

"So wrapped up in a freaking story?" Eiri snapped.

"It's not just a story, Eiri," Shuichi informed the man coolly.

Eiri cocked an eyebrow. "Really? Could've fooled me."

"You just don't get it." Shuichi turned his head away with his nose in the air.

Oh, yes. He definitely had a headache. "What's there to get? It's a story about freaking vampires that sparkle like a bottle of glitter in the fucking sun! What kind of crap is that?"

Despite his annoyance with a lover who just did not seem to get it, and never did, Shuichi found himself giggling at how Eiri said "sparkle".

Eiri beat back his own chuckle with a metal club. "You know they don't really exist don't you?" he asked with a carefully straight face and a neutral tone of voice. Sparkly vampires. Dear God help the preternatural community if they did. It would be like announcing that the feared werewolf was nothing more than a cuddly puppy.

"Now that is not exactly true, Eiri-kun," purred a new voice.

In response, Shuichi let loose a scream-a manly one of course-and toppled over backwards. His legs flew out from under him, coming within mere millimeters from knocking him senselessly in the head. The book, his precious baby that he'd spent all day guarding from evil fends like Eiri, went flying out of his hands. It sailed through the air over the bed. It came down like a rock, smashing into the edge of the nightstand, which sent the expensive piece of furniture rocking dangerously, before plummeting end over end to the floor in a splayed mess. Shuichi, having had the fright of his life for the second time that evening-or was it the third?-found himself balancing precariously on the edge of the bed. He grabbed the bedspread on either side of him to keep himself righted, but gravity was a forceful mistress and reached out with her mighty claws. With a surprised yelp, he slipped off the edge of the bed…

…and right into the arms of Eiri.

"Baka," Eiri scolded lightly.

Blood rushed to Shuichi's face. "Thanks," he whispered in embarrassed gratitude.

The feel of Eiri's arms wrapped around him tightly and his long, lean body-perfectly toned from years of hard manual labor-molded perfectly against his backside sent a delicious shiver through Shuichi. Suddenly, he wished their unexpected guest would just go away.

There was a light chuckle from the other side of the room. "You'd think-would you not?-that after being together for ten years-bonded for…what?…seven of those years?-that young Mr. Shindou here would have gotten used to guests-popping in and out."

His arousal instantly forgotten, Shuichi shot the newcomer a hate filled glare over Eiri's broad shoulder.

Tohma Seguchi, Master Vampire and leader of all Vampires-no matter which line they hailed from-residing within Tokyo Prefecture and who has ambitions of expanding his territory into Kyoto.

Before her untimely death when he was seven, Shuichi's mother had instilled in him a love for his fellow man whether he was human or not. She taught him to respect all of God's creatures. _"If you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all and if someone does you wrong, turn the other cheek."_

Shuichi has always lived by those words of wisdom, but it was near to impossible to show respect to a man like Tohma. Oh, he's tried. He has never tried so hard in his life to accomplish something when he tried to earn and gain the respect of Tohma Seguchi, who was like a surrogate father and older brother to Eiri. But it fast became apparent what an impossible task he set forth for himself. It was hard to like let alone respect someone who was constantly criticizing him and nitpicking at every single thing he did. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. For ten long, excruciating years. It was one of the reasons why he's been so hesitant in agreeing to be Turned when Eiri brought it up each year on their anniversary. It would mean an eternity with the blond bastard smirking at him from the doorway of the bedroom.

"Says someone with the hearing of a bat," Shuichi snapped.

Tohma peeled backs his lips in a grotesque grin. His needle sharp canines flashed.

Shuichi shuddered.

You could tell the age of a vampire, and sometimes their level of maturity, by how much fang shows when they open their mouth. The younger ones had a tendency to believe flashing their fangs intimidated those around them. It was also how they lured humans into their beds. The older vampires only did so when confronted by someone they perceived as a threat. It was much like a dog's growl. It was a warning to back off. As Tohma was not exactly the new kid in the neighborhood at over five hundred years old, Shuichi knew which side of the fence Tohma fell into, but Shuichi was not intimidated in the least…Much.

Even as a Master Vampire as well as the Tokyo Sovereign, Tohma did not have the authority to lay a hand on him as long as he was Bonded to Eiri. Vampire law forbade it, which has irked Tohma something fierce for years much to Shuichi's delight. There was an exception of course. If a vampire's Bonded Mate was to suddenly become a danger to the vampire and/or human community, the once untouchable Bond Mate could be restrained by any means necessary-short of death-and brought before the Council to stand trial, but to lob such accusations required concrete, irrefutable proof. The accuser had to show beyond a shadow of a doubt that a Bond Mate was guilty of said crime. There has been only one successful prosecution to date.

While Shuichi and Tohma bickered, Eiri wisely kept his mouth shut. There was no way he was getting caught in-between the two of them. Never again. He'd learned his lesson after the first time the two hotheads butted heads. Instead, he helped Shuichi back up onto the bed, regretting this immediately when the front of him went cold. Because the last thing he needed was to hear Shuichi whining about that stupid book he was so obsessed with, he picked it up and smoothed out the rumpled pages as best as he could.

Without taking his eyes from the vampire before him, Shuichi snatched the proffered book, hugging it possessively to his chest

There was very little Shuichi knew of Tohma. Tohma was Eiri's Master by way of Blood Adoption, which was where a lesser vampire pledged his allegiance and fidelity to a Master Vampire, but Tohma wasn't Eiri's Master as in the one responsible for Turning Eiri. That bastard, a psychotic pedophile by the name of Yuki Kitazawa, was dead.

Tohma was also Bonded to Eiri's sister Mika-therefore making him and Eiri brothers-in-law. Tohma and Mika have been married in human society several times over the centuries. The last time had been back at the turn of the twentieth century in Paris.

Mika Seguchi nee Uesugi and their younger brother Tatsuha were Turned by the same asshole who Turned Eiri. Unfortunately, Tatsuha had not survived the Turning. Mika had gladly helped Eiri rip the bastard to microscopic shreds.

It was said Tohma was the most powerful and most respected Master Vampire since Vlad the Impaler.

Actually, there was some debate among Vampire Historians and Researchers on that very matter in fact.

Many gave the honor of being the most powerful Master Vampire not to Vlad but to Nosferatu. They argued that Vlad hadn't actually been a vampire-there was no evidence to suggest he'd been one of the Children of the Night let alone the legendary Dracula-but merely a human with a lust and an infinity for blood and death, thus taking him out of contention as the most powerful Master Vampire of all time.

Shuichi did not have an opinion on the matter either way. Vlad. Dracula. Nosferatu. All three were dead. How powerful could they really have been?

"What's not true?" Eiri's voice snapped Shuichi out of his thoughts.

Tohma stepped out of the shadows of the hall and into the light shining into the moderate sized master bedroom suite from the open windows. A light breeze brushed passed him. He lifted a hand and pointed a long pale finger at the book Shuichi had a death grip on.

Both Eiri and Shuichi glanced at the book and then at each other, wearing identical looks of confusion.

"It's a story Seguchi," Eiri reminded the man. It was becoming quite irritating to have to repeat himself.

Tohma inclined his head. "Yes. Yes it is, but the players are not."

It took longer than normal for Eiri's brain to process what it was it just heard. Even then, he refused to accept it. He must have heard Tohma wrong. Yes. That was the only explanation because the alternative was just…just…

The gasp from besides him confirmed his worst fears.

Oh, no. Oh HELL no. Why was Tohma doing this to him?

Eiri has known from the very beginning that Tohma was against his relationship with Shuichi. It was not exactly a secret. One of the reasons why he asked Shuichi to become his Bond Mate after only being together for a year was because of the stunts Tohma was pulling, which had escalated from innocent tests to have Shuichi prove his commitment to Eiri to downright trying to kill the young teen. Bonding had been the only way to protect Shuichi from his psychotic, overprotective brother-in-law. Tohma had been none too pleased with the announcement, but really, from a certain point of view, Tohma had nobody but himself to blame. But for Tohma to go so far as this was just down right evil. He never thought Tohma would sink this low.

"I am not sure how Ms. Meyers could have possibly found out since all recorded data should have been destroyed, but her description of these-'sparkly' vampires, was it?-is pretty accurate," Tohma was saying, with a knowing smirk.

Bastard.

Bastard.

Bastard.

Bastard.

Bastard!

Eiri hoped this was just one big joke-for the sake of his sanity more than anything else.

But seriously. Vampires that sparkle? He'd never heard of something so ludicrous. If one were to think about it rationally, he would come to realize just how ridiculous the idea was of a vampire that shimmers as if he'd been tarred and feathered with glitter. Really, what kind of mind would come up with something as absurd as that?

"Probably some sexually frustrated housewife," he muttered so low that only Tohma heard him.

That was not to say he did not understand the allure and the appeal, but from a practical standpoint, they were nonsensical, like being in the middle of a war zone in a pink tutu.

Meanwhile, Shuichi was practically beside himself with excitement.

"You cannot be serious."

"I am," Tohma replied.

Shuichi squealed in delight. He was dreaming! He had to be dreaming because this was so unreal. To think there was a real live, flesh and blood Edward out there somewhere…!

Eiri crossed his arms over his chest. "You are actually telling me that there are vampires out there as we speak who look like they've taken a bath in a tub of glitter?" Where was an Executioner when you needed one?

"No."

Okay, now Eiri was confused.

Disappointment swirled within Shuichi. The excitement that had just filled him was deflating faster than a popped helium balloon. "But-But-You just said-!"

With that patent smile on his face, Tohma turned towards his brother-in-law's Bond Mate. "All I said was that they were not born from the over active imagination of a human female."

Shuichi dared to hope. "So they ARE real?"

"Were," Tohma corrected.

"What…?"

Eiri frowned. "So…the line died out?" he was assuming. Big surprise there.

"No," Tohma refuted.

Shuichi breathed a sigh of relief…

"They were killed."

…then gasped. His eyes widened in disbelief.

"What happened?" Eiri inquired. It wasn't as if he asked to satisfy his own curiosity.

"They were rounded up and executed-" Tohma said.

Shuichi gasped in horror. Tears filled his bejeweled eyes. A pain developed in his throat. His trembling hands flew to his trembling mouth. "Oh my God," he whispered.

"-by order of the Council."

Immediate rage and incredulity swirled within Eiri. "What?" He'd never heard of such a genocide taking place before. Not even Metz's line had been executed and they were all bloody-thirsty sociopaths, psychopaths and pedophiles-Yuki Kitazawa being case in point.

Shuichi felt lightheaded and dizzy with confusion and incomprehension. The Council? As in the Vampire Council of Six that ruled and governed over all the vampires in the world as if they were the Vampire UN? The eldest and most powerful vampires alive? That Council? But why? It made no sense!

"It should be obvious," Tohma said as he Sidestepped to the window. The feel of the setting sun on his face was nice. "As you can guess, they were Daywalkers."

"Like you and Eiri?" Shuichi cut in.

"Precisely," Tohma confirmed.

Like among the humans, there were some vampires who suffered from photosensitivity, or an allergic reaction to the sun. How severe the reaction, or whether you even had the allergy or not, determined if a vampire was a Daywalker or a Nightwalker.

In some lines, the allergic reaction was so severe that the afflicted vampire was cursed to spend an eternity confined to the dark of night hiding from the sun's warm arms otherwise they would burst into flame as myth claimed. There were others whose sensitivity was more moderate. They would develop itchy red rashes all over their body. The skin would then start to blister and burn. If they did not immediately retreat indoors and or seek treatment, they would die an agonizing death. Then there were those lines such as Tohma's and Kitazawa's-who might have been borne from the same sire. They showed absolutely no reaction to the sun.

Nobody was sure how, when or why this evolutionary step occurred, but with the knowledge that those "sparkly" vampires had actually existed at one point in time, it was becoming clear that the vampire's evolution-much like the humans-had resulted in a variety of differences in order to suit their environment.

Take, for example, Nosferatu's line. They all looked like they'd been hit one too many times upside the head.

Metz's line had an insatiable lust for blood and death that they satisfied anyway they could.

The females in Tohma lines were able to bear children.

These were just a few examples.

"But why were they killed?" Shuichi demanded to know. An entire line wiped out. What a tragedy.

Tohma turned around. The sun beat at his back. "Think about it," he began. "Our society has lived alongside human culture for millennia and even though occasionally a human will get wind that we are more than myth and legend, stories made up to cover their deviant behavior or to keep children in line, we've lived in relative peace because of this 'nonexistence'. Then along came this line of Daywalkers whose skin was implanted with microscopic…" Tohma waved his hands. He was not a scientist, so he could not say exactly what it was that made their skin sparkle as it had. "…diamond crystals if you will." Maybe their skin follicles had some sort of reflective surface. "In a time before glitter, can you imagine what people thought when they saw someone who sparkled like a faceted gem? It's just not natural. They would be marked as monsters. Freaks. They were a superstitious lot that feared everything that did not fit into their idea of what 'normal' was. Everything 'unnatural' or 'abnormal' must surely be the work of the Devil."

"They were a liability," Eiri said.

Tohma nodded. "Yes. Many had already been arrested and either hanged, burned alive as witches or had the 'Devil exorcised out of them'." Not many Vampires survived being exorcised. The ones who did had, more often than not, been driven insane and ended up having "to be dealt with" for the sake of vampire as well as human kind. "The rest were in hiding."

"Their being 'vegetarians' couldn't have helped either," Eiri snorted. A vampire who refused to feed from humans was just as ludicrous, if not more so, then the idea of a walking, talking diamond. That wasn't taking into account those vampires who refused to accept the fact that they were vampires and went around claiming they "still had a human heart". Sickening.

What he could not understand was how these "sparkly" vampires were able to survive on animal blood. It should not have been possible. Human blood was not the same as animal blood. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

He could remember hearing about some vampires over the centuries who-for whatever reason-switched from human to animal blood. The end results in each case were always the same: the vampire would start to wither away. The cause? Malnutrition. They were literally starving to death.

So how was it possible for this one line to thrive when so many had failed?

An odd thought occurred to Eiri. Taking the odd reflective nature of their skin as well as their habit of feeding on animals, he could not help wondering if it was possible that this line originated in a colder climate, some place without humans. Their evolution would have obviously been different from the rest of their brethren.

"Ah yes! Further proof of their allegiance to the Devil," Tohma was saying.

Shuichi frowned. "But-"

"Our whole society was in danger of being discovered by the humans," Tohma continued as if Shuichi had not spoken. "Millennia of history, peace, prosperity, our entire way of life, our businesses, even those allies we had within the humans-everything would be destroyed. We would have been rounded up like cattle and brought to slaughter. We would've been wiped out. It would have been genocide, a witch hunt." Tohma shook his head. "It was bad enough that those of our kind who couldn't bask in the warmth of the sun's rays were beginning to be suspect-as were the humans with the same affliction. Now we had to contend with a line that sparkled as if they were the crown jewels. They had to be dealt with. We could not allow everything the Ancients had granted to us to be for naught."

Shuichi understood all of that, but what he did not get was the extreme reaction the Council had taken. Surely, they could have just been relocated. So adamant he was on this that he voiced his opinion.

"Ah, well, that option was given to them."

"Really?" Hope was borne within Shuichi.

That surprised Eiri. The Council he knew would never have allowed a liability to survive in ANY capacity.

"Then-?"

"The Council has a reputation as being ruthless, but even they do not slaughter their own kind unless it is absolutely necessary."

That would explain a few things, Eiri thought, like allowing a psychotic psychopath such as Kitazawa to run loose for as long as they had.

"So they presented the True Ones with the option to-"

"Wait! What?"

"I'm sorry?"

"What did you just call them?"

"True Ones?"

"Yeah! Why did you call them that?"

Tohma looked uncomfortable suddenly.

That had Eiri's immediate attention.

"It seems," Tohma answered after clearing his throat. Though his voice was steady, he still looked uncomfortable. "The Researchers have since discovered that the True Ones may have been the direct descendants to the Ancients."

Shuichi blinked.

Eiri was floored. That was something he never expected to hear.

Of course, Shuichi had heard all about the Ancients, Vampire forefathers, the legendary Adam and Eve-as it were-that gave birth to the extensive vampire community of today. Some say the Ancient Ones-sometimes referred to as Mother and Father-had been both vampire and shape shifter, which was impossible as both viruses cancel each other out-at least, they did today. There were many legends and stories surrounding the True Mother and Father that it was near to impossible to separate fact from fiction.

"But this was centuries after they had died out," Tohma said.

Bet the Council were kicking themselves now, Shuichi thought smugly.

"Anyway," Tohma continued. His back was starting to sweat from the beating it was getting from the sun, so he stepped away from the window and around to the foot of the bed where the coolness of the shadows engulfed him. "The True Ones were called before the Council and given the option of relocating somewhere away from human society. They were told that their activities as well as their appearance had become a liability to all vampire kind-"

Shuichi snorted. "And the Nosferatu line was welcomed with open arms?"

Eiri chuckled. Shuichi had a point. Once he'd had a very good friend from that line. She'd looked like a mutated elf. Not the most attractive bunch of vampires. They couldn't blend in among the humans even if their lives depended on it, which ironically enough, it did.

"That was exactly what Godard pointed out to the Council," Tohma said with a look of amusement. "Of course, unlike the True Ones, those of Nosferatu's line had long since gone underground. They lived in seclusion. I believe they have since died out." He glanced at Eiri for confirmation.

Eiri shrugged. "That's what I heard."

No big loss there, Shuichi thought.

"Anyway, the Council gave them a fortnight to come to a decision. From what I've heard, many refused to move, to give up their homes, friends, family just so they could placate some humans. Others were going to take the Council up on their offer, but before anything concrete could be decided one way or another, the manor they had gathered at went up in flames."

Shuichi gasped. The book, long since forgotten, fell out of his arms and onto the bed, where it bounced several times before settling. "What happened?" he breathed.

Tohma shrugged. "Nobody is entirely sure."

Shuichi gulped. "Did anyone-?"

Tohma shook his head. "All within the manor perished."

Tears refilled Shuichi's eyes.

Eiri glanced at his overtly emotional lover. "Some could have survived," he said. He had absolutely no idea where this thought came from. All he knew was that he did not like seeing his baka so upset. He would do anything to see a smile on his face.

Shuichi turned towards Eiri. His watery eyes were wide with hope.

"Possible," Tohma agreed. Out of the corner of his eye, he studied his brother-in-law. "Not likely, but possible."

He has known Eiri since before Eiri was Turned. The difference in his personality was dramatic. From outgoing and bubbly-not unlike Shuichi-to closed off and suspicious. But once Eiri met Shuichi, the anti-social, stoic bachelor slowly vanished. Nothing will bring back the pre-Turn Eiri, but to see the changes, the wonderful changes, happening to him, to be witness to the block of ice Eiri has spent centuries trapped in thawing, was not anything he thought he'd see.

"But it is possible. You said it was!" Shuichi was on his knees and pointing to Tohma. There was a fierce, determined glare in his amethyst eyes, as if Tohma was about to take back what he just said.

"That I did."

Shuichi squealed. He flopped onto his back, clapping his hands and flailing his legs in the air. This was too good to be true!

Eiri winced.

The ringing of the phone echoed down the hallway.

"That's probably Hiro," Shuichi cried. He somersaulted off the bed, landing on his feet on the opposite side of the bed as Eiri.

Hiroshi Nakano was Shuichi's best friend. They met a week after Shuichi had been hired as a busboy at Kita when Hiro-who had been one of the waiters at the time-caught Shuichi playing the grand piano just before the restaurant opened for dinner. The two have been inseparable ever since.

"Oo! I cannot wait to tell him!" Shuichi stampeded out of the bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen, where the only phone in the house was located. The phone was picked up mid-ring. "Hiro! Hey! Guess what?"

The rest of the conversation was cut short by the shutting of the kitchen door.

"Mr. Shindou is…"

Eiri nodded, as a once rare smile appeared on his face. His baka definitely was.

Despite his initial misgivings, hiring an inexperienced fifteen year old to bus tables at his high class restaurant turned out to be one of-if not the-best moves of his life, though, he would be the first to admit that more often than not, Shuichi drove him nuts.

The smile froze then fell. He eyed the smaller blond Master. "You didn't make that up did you?"

Tohma merely smiled that smile that meant everything and yet nothing. He Sidestepped out of the room and into the rapidly falling twilight.

Eiri's frown deepened. This is SO like him.

Shuichi's laughter rang out.

Though, either way, does it really matter? Not really. Shuichi was happy. Besides…

Eiri smirked. He gazed down at the book that lay forgotten on the bed.

…at least Shuichi's forgotten his annoyance with him.

"Shit," he cursed soundly. He should have had Tohma take a look at the books for Truth. Oh, well. There's always tomorrow.

**OWARI**


End file.
